All posts by Daniel

Brewing Log, Recipes

Beer finally

It has been a struggling to find time to brew. Thankfully my Wife encouraged me to brew a week ago. So on short notice I pulled together a IPA recipe that uses a light malt base and some hops that I have on hand. If it’s good I make make it a few times to play with different hop combos.

Results: OG 1.057 (12 gallon) / FG 1.007 / ABV 6.56%

OG 1.058 / FG 1.010 / ABV 6.26% / IBU 57 / SRM 3.9

21# 2-row
2.5# Vienna

1oz Commet @ 60min boil
1oz Commet @ 15min boil
2oz El Dorado @ 15min boil
2oz Commet @ 2min boil
4oz El Dorado @ 2min boil
1oz Commet Dry Hop @ 5 days
5oz El Dorado Dry Hop @ 5 days

Water target – SO4 200 (25g Gypsum added to 19gal)

Mash at 152° for 60 minutes then raise to 168° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 14 gallons and boil for 60 minutes. Produces 12 gallons at the end of the boil and 11 gallons in the fermenter.

Fermentis – Safale – American Ale Yeast US-05

  • Start of Mash
  • End of mash
  • 1.057 OG
  • Hop dam works decent and very easy to clean
eHERMS Build

Pump Care and Feeding

I use two stainless steel center inlet chugger pumps. They have been great but there are issues that can happen. The wort pump is pumping grain material and tons of pellet hops around so there is more abrasives running through it. It also deals with boiling wort regularly. This causes the thrust washers to wear. I recommendation checking on your thrust washers on your wort pump if it is acting different then your water pump. They are not a big cost so I have stocked up on a few. Bobby M at brewhardware has a good video on youtube. Below is the state of the thrust washers on my wort pump (4+ years) compared to new. The front washer had worn through. The water pump was still in fine shape. Bonus shot of a sight glass I picked up from brewhardware.

Brewing Log, Recipes

RESILIENCE IPA

I decided to donate and brew a batch of Resilience IPA using the recipe from chopandbrew. If you do, do not forget to donate to the camp fire fund. I had all but the yeast and crystal 60L on hand. After brewing a bunch of hazy IPA I am going to add whirlfloc and fine with gelatin to get a very clear beer for a change.

Results: OG 1.063 (12.5 gallon) / FG 1.TBD /

OG 1.065 / FG 1.014 / ABV 6.65% / IBU 66 / SRM 8.9

23# 2-row
2# Crystal 60L

2oz Centennial @ 60min boil
2oz Centennial @ 15min boil
2oz Cascade @ 15min boil
1oz Centennial Whirlpool @ 180° for 20 min
1oz Cascade Whirlpool @ 180° for 20 min
1oz Centennial Dry Hop @ high krausen
1oz Cascade Dry Hop @ high krausen

Water target – SO4 250

Mash at 152° for 60 minutes then raise to 168° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 14 gallons and boil for 60 minutes. Produces 12 gallons at the end of the boil and 11 gallons in the fermenter.

White Labs – California Ale Yeast WLP001

A part of my equipment that is not glamorous but works great is this big bucket. A quick hoist and dump of my grain bag into this large bucket makes moving my spent grain to the compost pile easy and clean. Also neat are these cold crash guardians. they are essentially bags that fill with CO2 from fermentation that then is available to fill the head space during cold crashing vs pulling oxygen or starsan in.

  • 25lb of spent grain

Brewing Log, Recipes

Oktoberfest

The rye IPA is kegged and carbonating. It is already delicious, one of my favorite recipes. I like the increased % of rye. You can really smell the spicy rye. It also gets a great body/creaminess you can feel and see in the bubbles.

On to the next brew. Following the (m)Oktoberfest based on brulosophy.

Estimated
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.013
ABV: ~5.4%
IBU: 21
SRM: 10.6

10# Vienna
5# Munich Light 10L
4# Pilsner
1# Crystal 60L
1# Honey Malt
4oz Special B

4 oz Saaz Pellet – 60 min
1 oz Saaz Pellet – 15 min

Mash @ 152 for 1 hour

White Labs – German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast WLP029

Barn, Brewing Log, Recipes

Falconer’s Rye and some organization

Brew two! This is likely my most brewed beer. I am increasing the percentage of rye to 25%. I am a fan of falconers flight and it is easy to find in stock. Brew day was smooth and hit my OG exactly again. Efficiency to the kettle has been dead on 85%. I may ditch the flameout addition. I get down to whirlpool temp so fast they happen almost back to back.

Estimated
OG: 1.071
FG: 1.013
ABV: ~7.5% 
IBU: 94
SRM: 9.5

18# 2-Row Malt
7# Rye Malt
2# Crystal 60L Malt

2 oz Nugget Pellet – 60 min
2 oz Nugget Pellet – 30 min
2 oz Falconer’s Flight Pellet – 10 min
2 oz Falconer’s Flight Pellet – 0 min
2 oz Falconer’s Flight Pellet – Whirlpool @ 170* for 20 min
2 oz Falconer’s Flight Pellet – Dry Hop Fermenter

Mash @ 152 for 1 hour

Fermentis SafAle US-05

I also got around to some organization.

  • Measurement tools
  • Salts, etc
Mash pH
Nice color heading to the boil kettle
10 minute whirlpool after pulling chiller + hop dam
Barn, Brewing Log, Recipes

New Brewery and Baby!

The first beer in the new brewery will help clean out some old supplies and celebrate my baby boy. I am using a modified version of the Kal’s Electric Hop Candy NEIPA.

Results: OG 1.065 / FG 1.015 / Grain to keg in 10 days. Looks good, tastes great, but the aroma is a little low I think.

OG 1.065 / FG 1.016 / ABV 6.3% / IBU 104 / SRM 6.1

8# 2-row
8# Maris Otter
3.5# White Wheat
3.5# Flaked Oats
1.25# Honey Malt

1oz Warrior First Wort Hops/60min boil
2oz Citra @ 5 min
2oz Mosaic @ 5 min
2oz Amarillo @ 5 min
2oz Citra Whirlpool @ 180° for 30 min
2oz Mosaic Whirlpool @ 180° for 30 min
2oz Vic Secret Whirlpool @ 180° for 30 min
2oz Citra dry hop @ high krausen
2oz Mosaic dry hop @ high krausen
2oz Amarillo dry hop @ high krausen
2oz Citra dry hop @ day 4
2oz Mosaic dry hop @ day 4
2oz Amarillo dry hop @ day 4

Water target – Ca 75 – Mg 5 – SO 150 – Na 10 – Cl 50

Mash at 154° for 60 minutes then raise to 168° and hold for 10 minutes.  Collect 14 gallons and boil for 60 minutes. Produces 12 gallons at the end of the boil and 11 gallons in the fermenter.

White Labs – Dry English Ale Yeast WLP007

Finished beer not fully carbonated
eHERMS Build

Oxidation…

I did not feel great about my racking procedures on my batch of NEIPA. NEIPA very vulnerable to oxidation and any beer can have its shelf life compromised by oxidation. To deal with this I am going start doing closed transfers. This means using CO2 to push the finished beer between fermenters and kegs.

Bellow is a 5# CO2 tank with gas ball lock disconnect. The racking cane has a ball lock post for input and a gas ball lock disconnect as the output. I find that the gas disconnects fit on both gas and liquid posts. This is not the case for the liquid side disconnects. Adventures in home brewing sell a ball lock disconnect that has a 3/8″ barb which is convenient for this setup.

  1. Put some starsan in the keg and sanitize as normal.
  2. Purge and pressurize with CO2.
  3. Put racking cane in a bucket and connect to liquid post on keg.
  4. Push starsan out of keg and into bucket.
  5. Use starsan now in bucket to finish sanitizing the outside of racking cane.
  6. Vent all pressure out of keg.
  7. Place racking cane in fermenter.
  8. Turn CO2 regulator all the way down.
  9. Connect CO2 tank to racking cane input.
  10. Open and twist keg vent to stay open.
  11. Turn regulator just enough to start pushing beer. Less then 1psi.
  12. Do not allow pressure to build up in the carboy (I use plastic carboys for safety). Speaking of carboys I also picked up some 7g Fermonsters.

I am also going to try using brewhardware’s Cold Crash Guardian. This allows for CO2 not oxygen to be pulled into the keg during cold crashing.

  • Racking Cane
  • CO2 Tank
Fermonster
eHERMS Build

Dead space

After moving and cleaning the brewery I did another check of dead space.

In a HERMS system you need to tweak your water volumes for most brewing software. Most software will accommodate your dead space under your dip tubes (add your pumps and hoses if you use them). Most do not understand the loss from the false bottom and HERMS coil. The main thing you will need to account for is the increase of mash water and decrease in sparge water.

  • The water needed to fill the MLT to the top of the false bottom while recirculating through the HERMS coil with the wort pump. This tells me how much water is in my MLT to get to “zero” before I add grains and mash water. I must take my basic water volume calculations and add this volume to my mash water. I have my volume markers on the MLT start at this “zero” point so I can ignore the added mash water unless I am adjusting my mash with salts or acids. I also use this full volume when calculating estimated mash pH.
  • The water needed to fill the HERMS coil and hose to MLT. This needs to be added to the sparge volume as this much water will be required before any sparge water enters the MLT.

HLT dead space = 1.5qt  + Water pump & hoses = 2qt
MLT dead space = 2qt + Wort pump & hoses = 2.5qt
Boil Kettle dead space = 1.25qt + Wort pump & hoses = 1.75qt
Water pump & hoses = .5qt
Wort pump & hoses = .5qt
HERMS coil & hose to MLT = 1.5qt
MLT under false bottom = 8qt

Water added to mash volume = MLT under false bottom (8qt) + Wort pump & hoses (.5qt) + HERMS coil (1.5qt) = 10qt / 2.5 gallons

Water subtracted from sparge volume = MLT under false bottom (8qt) + Wort pump & hoses (.5qt) = 8.5qt / 2 gallons.

The net of all this is I subtract 2 gallons from my sparge water. Some systems allow you accommodate this difference now. For example beersmith now has an option for “recoverable dead space” which would be the volume under the false bottom less the MLT dead space. It would then reduce the sparge as necessary. Since my MLTs volume markings only start after this recoverable dead space it is easier for me to just subtract 2 gallons from my sparge water and move on with my brew day.

Barn, eHERMS Build

A new brewery is born

Updates have been slow because my old brewing space is now a office/playroom for myself and my daughter.

The brewery is being relocated to to a framed off area in a barn we built. It’s been a long time in the making but all that remains is to  install my vent.  The brewing space is approximately 12′ x 12′  with a 6′ x 8′ storage closet.

A very nice addition to the brewery is a commercial sink with pre-rinse sprayer and pot filler. This should help cut down on cleaning time and effort and shorten the brew day some.

I have a lot of brewing to do! Bellow are my style goals.

  1. Rye IPA
  2. NEIPA
  3. Doppelbock
  4. Stout
  5. A lagger

Brewing Log, Recipes

A trip to Vermont

Here is an old post that never got published from last summer. The beer turned out good but darker and maltier then I expected. I attribute this to the perl and cara malt. If i were to brew it again I would halve the cara malt and split the base malt 50% 2row and 50% perl.

We spent a recent long weekend at Little River State Park in Vermont. It is just outside Waterbury (check out Prohibition Pig and Ben & Jerry’s Factory) and near Stowe home of The Alchemist. The park offered some great views and swimming and the beer in the area was fantastic. Heady Topper was awesome. I really liked Focal Banger and Joanna was a big fan of Crusher. They have that juicy NEIPA character but they also have a bit more bitterness and dankness that I really liked. My Rye IPA is getting low so its time to brew and a Heady Topper clone is whats on my mind.

OG: 1.076 FG:1.013 ABV:8.25%
60 min mash @ 150°
GigaYeast – Vermont IPA Yeast
24 lb United Kingdom – Pearl 37 2.1 84.8%
26 oz American – White Wheat 40 2.8 5.7%
26 oz United Kingdom – Cara Malt 35 17.5 5.7%
17 oz Corn Sugar – Dextrose 46 0.5 3.8%
20 ml Hopshot Extract 100 Boil 90 min 100
2 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 5 min 7.02
1 oz Apollo Pellet 20 Boil 5 min 5.53
4 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 0 min
2 oz Columbus Pellet 15 Boil 0 min
2 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Whirlpool at 180 °F 30 min 15.85
2 oz Columbus Pellet 15 Whirlpool at 180 °F 30 min 18.73
2 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Whirlpool at 180 °F 30 min 10.74
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Whirlpool at 180 °F 30 min 6.24
1 oz Apollo Pellet 20 Whirlpool at 180 °F 30 min 12.48
2 oz Columbus Pellet 15 Dry Hop 8 days
4 oz Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Dry Hop 8 days
2 oz Amarillo Pellet 8.6 Dry Hop 8 days
2 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Dry Hop 8 days
1 oz Apollo Pellet 20 Dry Hop 8 days

Dry hop will be split. Half in the fermenter and half in the keg.